Archive of Our Own

There was silence in the living room as all four occupants nursed their various drinks, and Keeley couldn’t stand it anymore. She stood up from the settee, startling the others.

“Right,” Keeley said firmly. “I know we’re all probably not the best at using our words, but someone has to say something, please—I’m dying here.”

There were mumbled disagreements as Rebecca, Roy, and Ted took umbrage with Keeley calling them out on their lack of expression of their feelings. Keeley raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in an exact imitation of Rebecca, glaring playfully around the room. Their mouths all swung shut and no one dared breathe.

“Can I be bluntly honest? If this is going to work, that needs to be our number one rule, honesty,” Keeley said matter of factly, pulling a glitter-covered notebook out of her bag and setting it on her lap.

She pulled a fuzzy pen out of her piled-up hair where she had been using it as a hair clip of sorts, and her dirty blonde locks sprang free. Keeley took a deep breath and looked up expectantly at the three people seated in the living room—her soulmates, her mind whispered excitedly, and Keeley shook her head as if trying to dislodge her own inner voice. She would not be distracted, yet.

“Let’s start with Rebecca, shall we?” Keeley soldiered on, glancing at her best friend who surveyed her in slight fear of what she would say.

“Rebecca, doll, you know you are one of my very best friends in the world, but you are also…not the greatest at verbalizing your feelings,” Keeley said with an apologetic grimace. 

“The first year of our friendship felt like pulling teeth to get you to share anything of substance with me, which I realize is more psychologically rooted than we have any time or space to delve into tonight. If this is going to work, we can’t be expected to read your mind.”

Roy snorted, and Keeley directed her ire onto him. Roy swallowed hard as Keeley glared at him, pursing her lips.

“And Roy, you are, quite frankly, one of the most emotionally constipated men I have ever met,” Keeley said, doodling a star in the margins of her notebook aimlessly as she maintained eye contact with Roy.

“Don’t bother arguing with me—even your sister agrees with me, I’ll have you know! We talked about it the one time I babysat Phoebe when you were out with the yoga mums and Ruth got called to an emergency. She insisted on opening a bottle of wine after she got home, and we had some quite lovely real talk.”

Her gaze swung over to Ted, who was chewing his lip anxiously from his perch on the edge of the sofa. Keeley softened. She hadn’t spent much time with Ted before this but…she sensed a kindred, if slightly emotionally damaged, spirit, and didn’t want to be too hard on him just yet.

“Ted, I know we don’t know each other too well, but I think that cheery American folksy facade is hiding some “unpleasant” shit,” Keeley said gently, adding the finger quotes for emphasis. 

“I’d bet my yearly salary on it that you and Roy are pretty similar in that you try to bury any type of negative feeling, and hide how you truly feel if it makes someone feel better.”

The room was silent once more, and Keeley had a fleeting thought that she might have overstepped, might have missed the mark.

“Well, shit,” Rebecca said quietly, draining her water glass, holding the empty glass up to Keeley in a toast. “Darling, I think you’ve had us all pegged.”

Keeley was…resolutely not thinking of anything to do with pegging, no matter how much she wished to. Fuck. Save it for later, girl. She played it off with an “I know, babe,” and grabbed her hot pink emotional support water bottle to keep her hands busy, sipping quickly, mouth suddenly bone dry. She went to sit down in the nearest armchair, her legs feeling suspiciously wobbly.

There was silence once more, and honestly at this point, Keeley was annoyed. If this was going to be her soulmate dynamic, that she would organize everything and the rest would just follow along, she…would simply like to unsubscribe. Keeley shut the door in her heart where her innermost thoughts of “I want someone to take care of me” were kept under lock and key. 

She’d been pretty much independent since age 16, and done a damn fine job of it if she did say so herself, but she was… tired. She saw Rebecca’s eyes narrow, and shut her eyes, hand coming up to rub her temple, trying to stave off a migraine. She must have had her eyes closed for longer than she thought because she was startled to find Rebecca perched on the arm of her armchair, holding a hand out. Her best friend dropped some pain pills in Keeley’s outstretched hand, and she smiled gratefully, gulping them down with the rest of her water.

Rebecca gestured for the water bottle, and feeling too tired to argue, Keeley passed it over. She wanted to be taken care of, she really did, but sometimes she was just plain annoyed whenever people tried. It was on her list of things to work on, one of her year’s self-improvement goals.

She kept her eyes closed, willing the throbbing in her head to dissipate, and was startled again when Rebecca silently padded back from the kitchen and tapped her knee gently.

“Get up, darling,” Rebecca said quietly, and Keeley allowed the taller woman to pull her gently from the armchair.

Rebecca sat back in the chair and pulled Keeley to sit between her long legs, half sitting on her lap, half on the chair. Keeley’s eyes remained closed and she mumbled something about needing a few minutes, intending on apologizing, when she felt Rebecca’s hands slip into her hair.

Every nerve in her body seemed to be electrified, and the hair on her arms stood on end. Rebecca skillfully and gently probed at various pressure points on Keeley’s head, and Keeley allowed herself to drift along in this surprising yet welcome current. Rebecca moved down to target the pressure points in Keeley’s neck, the base of her skull, her hands, moving to place pressure on her thumbs and wrists.

Keeley was lulled into just being, the medication kicking in finally, the drum beat in her head dissipating slightly. She cracked an eye open as Rebecca had continued her hand massage to see Roy hovering near her with a steaming cup of tea in hand. She raised an eyebrow as best as she could, feeling strangely fragile, and Roy honest-to-goodness blushed. Keeley was secretly delighted to have elicited this reaction. She couldn’t wait until she could do it again.

Ted appeared behind Roy with a small plate in hand, bearing a couple extra shortbread biscuits. Keeley felt warm and fuzzy inside—she knew this was the beginning of whatever this was, but she felt loved, already.

Her soulmates (weird) brought their offerings to her as Rebecca’s hands moved to loosely braid her hair, getting it out of her face but not making it too tight as to be headache-inducing. Rebecca gently pulled a hair tie off of Keeley’s wrist, making quick work of securing the end of the braid.

“I’m just so tired,” Keeley whispered, although if asked to verbalize what exactly she was tired of, she wouldn’t be able to put her finger on it. 

Rebecca’s hands wrapped loosely around the younger woman’s waist, resting her hands on Keeley’s stomach. This tactileness wasn’t anything new for the best friends, but the soulmate tattoos had added an extra layer to their already complex relationship. 

“Well,” Ted said, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck—Keeley spotted a glimpse of the tattoo on his wrist and felt a sense of contentment wash over her.

“Sweetheart, I think you’ll feel a whole lot better if you have a nice hot cup o’ that garbage water—sorry, Rebecca—and follow it up with a biscuit or two. Get some sugar in ya. You seem like the type to have their eating and drinking habits thrown off in times of stress,” Ted said, shoving a hand in his pocket and passing her the plate with the other.

Keeley reached out a trembling arm, and Ted thought better of it.

If they were going to set a precedent for this new relationship, the care and keeping of one Ms. Keeley Jones was the way to go, here. 

Roy stepped forward, brushing a tentative hand on Keeley’s cheek, and she smiled tremulously. He guided her lips to the edge of the tea cup and Keeley tilted her head back, resting on Rebecca’s chest, as she carefully gulped down the restorative beverage. She was surprised by how the tea was just how she liked it, and wondered how Roy had known her preferences.

After Keeley had her fill of the steaming drink, feeling the warmth seeping through her bones, Rebecca placed a hand on the back of her head, cradling the back of Keeley’s skull in her palm and helped her right herself. Roy stepped back, and Ted took his place, smiling slightly, eyes crinkling. He picked up a rectangular biscuit and Keeley parted her lips slowly, truly in disbelief that she had three people at her beck and call now. 

She closed her eyes as her lips wrapped around the sugary and buttery sweetness, and Ted slid the biscuit in until she managed to get a bite of it. He pulled back, waiting for her to swallow, before feeding her the rest of the biscuit, and this time, her lips accidentally connected with her thumb. She suckled slowly, eyes fluttering open, and Ted had gone stock still, almost holding his breath as he stared at the women before him.

“Fuuuuuckkkkk me,” Roy whispered almost reverently, locking eyes with Rebecca who winked at him behind Keeley’s head.

Keeley closed her eyes again, content to sit in Rebecca’s arms, against her (fabulous) chest, for a moment. She felt Rebecca shift behind her as the woman checked the time on her (expensive) wristwatch. Rebecca hummed over Keeley’s shoulder, resting her chin gently on the younger woman.

“Alright, darling, I think you would feel better with a nap in your system, okay? Why don’t I take you upstairs for a proper lie-down, and the boys can work out what to order for dinner. We can wake you in a few hours,” Rebecca said quietly, eyes flicking to Roy and Ted standing before her.

“‘M not tired,” Keeley protested. “Don’t need to be handled.”

Old habits die hard and Keeley was still very much not used to this.

Rebecca hummed in acknowledgment.

“Let us take care of you, babe,” she whispered into Keeley’s ear, and Keeley suppressed a shudder. 

Grudgingly acquiescing, she opened her eyes, and was met with a smiling, tentative Ted who held his hands out to her. He gently pulled her off the armchair, moving her out of the way so that Roy could help Rebecca, who by that point had sunken into the plush armchair.

“I gotcha, Keels,” Ted said quietly, mindful of Keeley’s head. Roy kept his hand wrapped around Rebecca’s wrist, and seemed to be relishing in the closeness.

“C’mon, Lasso,” Roy said quietly, gruffly, jerking a thumb toward the kitchen as Rebecca dislodged herself to take Keeley’s hand, twining their fingers together, using the arm closest to Keeley to sling around her waist, hand landing on her hip bone, covering the hidden tattoo.

“The takeaway menus are—”

“Yeah, yeah, blondie, I know where they are, unless you’ve moved ‘em since I was last here,” Roy said, winking at Rebecca. 

Keeley pouted in Rebecca’s arms, annoyed that she couldn’t properly…appreciate her imagination conjuring what might have happened when Roy was last at Rebecca’s.

“Up we go, darling,” Rebecca said, and Keeley was startled to find themselves at the base of the stairs. She must have been more out of it than she thought. Rebecca made quick work of helping Keeley change into some cozy pajamas, grabbing the cashmere sweater of Rebecca’s that Keeley had worn last time, and tucked the woman into bed. 

Rebecca went to turn around and exit the room when a sleepy Keeley’s hand shot out to grab at Rebecca’s wrist, small hand wrapping around at her pulse point. 

“Babe,” Keeley said, almost slurring her words, caught in that liminal space between the real world and dream world.

Rebecca smoothed the other woman’s hair back fondly, tugging the blankets more firmly around Keeley’s shoulders.

“Thank you,” Keeley whispered, as she snuggled under the covers, releasing Rebecca’s wrist to burrow more fully.

Rebecca kissed Keeley’s forehead gently, lips lingering slightly. Again, nothing they hadn’t done before, but now it had an extra edge about it. 

After grabbing a handful of comfy clothes for herself, mentally noting that her slippers were downstairs, she closed the bedroom door quietly, hearing the lock snick behind her, and headed downstairs to see what Roy and Ted were up to.

Rebecca entered the kitchen and leaned against the menu-laden island. Roy slid a glass of white wine her way, and Rebecca saluted him, taking a small sip, enjoying the crisp taste against her tongue. Ted was leaning against a cabinet, hands held loosely in his pockets.

“So, boys,” Rebecca said, eyeing the various menus. “What have we decided on for dinner? Anything you fancy?”

Roy grunted in response, sitting down on a nearby barstool, mindful of his dodgy knee, and Rebecca inwardly laughed at being on the receiving end of a classic Roy Kent grunt. Her hand came up to her elbow absentmindedly—it was slightly prickling, and she didn’t know why, but she paid it no mind.

Ted crossed to the island, palms skimming over the marble countertop, and shrugged his shoulders. Rebecca took another sip of wine, more of a guzzle this time, and smacked her lips lightly, running her tongue over her teeth. Both Roy and Ted stopped to stare at her, and the latter blushed from his hairline all the way down his neck when Rebecca’s gaze swung to him.

“We didn’t wanna be presumptuous and pick something y’all weren’t gonna like,” Ted said earnestly. “I figure Roy and I will eat pretty much anything—except I’m not too great with a whole heck of a lot of spice, ya know?”

Rebecca surveyed the menus once more, seeing if anything caught her fancy.

“How about just the local, then?” She mused, fingernails tapping on the paper menu in front of her. 

“They have good burgers and decent fish and chips. Keeley and I’ll do our usual and split a medium rare burger and a caesar salad, I can’t imagine she’s up for anything else,” Rebecca said, pulling out her phone to navigate to the Deliveroo app and get their order started. She passed her phone to Roy, murmuring to add whatever he wanted, and crossed to the wine fridge for a top up.

“Does…” Ted started, then cut himself off, pursing his lips. His hand came to rest on his tattooed wrist momentarily, rubbing absentmindedly.

Rebecca gestured for him to continue, and he grabbed the phone from Roy, quickly adding his dinner order before passing it back to Rebecca. She added a few of the dessert specials to the order and then sent it into the ether, phone vibrating with a text from her credit card company about the impending charge.

“Does Keeley get migraines often?” Ted said, eyes flickering to both Rebecca and Roy.

“Y’all know her better than I do, and I want to be a good friend and a—I wanna help, if I can.”

Rebecca made a face, placing her hand flat out and moving it from side to side, the universal sign for “eh.”

“Depends—she hasn’t had one in a while, I think. Usually they tend to come on when she’s overtired, stressed, anxious, or a combination of all three,” Rebecca mused, her fingertips swirling a pattern onto the cool marble countertop.

“She’ll be just fine after a nap,” Rebecca said, glancing at her watch. “We’ll let her sleep for an hour or so, wake her up when the food gets here.”

Rebecca quickly drained the rest of her wine, chasing it with the glass of water set before her by an impassive Roy. She saluted, drained her water glass, and then went to change out of her more restrictive office wear, inviting Ted and Roy to do the same. 

She figured that Roy would show Ted to the guest bathroom where he could change, and she headed upstairs to her guest bedroom where she had deposited the bundle of clothing upon leaving Keeley fast asleep in her bed. Rebecca tried not to focus too much on that mental image—she would save that for later. Much later.

The unlikely trio wandered back into the living room, sitting in a much more relaxed silence than earlier, until—

“Do y—I mean,” Ted swallowed, and Rebecca became distracted by the workings of his throat. She shook her head slightly, trying to focus on what he was saying.

“Are y’alls tattoos prickling a bit? It’s not…unpleasant, exactly, just noticeable,” Ted trailed off, grimacing as he clutched his wrist.

Rebecca confirmed that her elbow had been prickling as well, basically the second that she had come downstairs after tucking Keeley in. She had just assumed it was her body and skin still settling after having a bloody tattoo appear. Ted and Rebecca’s gaze shifted to an expressionless Roy, who was twirling his water glass in his hand.

“Oi,” Rebecca said, finally. “Kent.”

Roy looked up, startled out of his reverie.

“Is your tattoo starting to sting or prickle at all?” Rebecca asked with all the gravity of a police detective she had seen on telly one time. Roy shrugged.

“Dunno, I don’t feel anything, not really. Like…” he paused, considering, mentally scanning his body for any aches and pains that were out of the normal. 

“Shoulder stings maybe a little, now that I think about it, but I’m used to it all, you know, my fucking knee’s fucked—“don’t repeat that, Lasso”—so it doesn’t feel too bad,” Roy said contemplatively. “Didn’t even really notice until you said something.”

“I wonder…if the proximity requirement is starting to kick in,” Rebecca mused out loud. “Didn’t really start prickling until we all came downstairs, after Keeley went to sleep upstairs.”

Just then, they heard surprisingly heavy footfalls on the stairs. Rebecca shot out of her chair to dash to the kitchen, and was back before Ted and Roy had almost even noticed she’d gone. The blonde waved a bottle of pills at them, setting it on the side table next to Keeley’s water bottle.

The woman in question, hair in disarray, clothes askew, stomped into the living room with a grumpy expression on her face.

“Have a nice nap, darling?” Rebecca said placidly, regally leaning back into her armchair, as if she was holding a court audience.

Keeley frowned and snaked her fingers past the waistband of her joggers until the pads of her fingertips touched her new tattoo. Rebecca hummed in acknowledgment.

“‘S stopped stinging,” Keeley said, a tone of wonder streaking through her voice. “Stopped stinging as soon as I got on the same floor as you all.”

Ted slapped his hands on his knees in a patented Midwest Dad™ move, and crossed the room, holding a hand out to Keeley, who took it cautiously, sleepily. He led her over to the sofa, bringing her to sit amidst a nest of fuzzy blankets that Rebecca kept on her sofa specifically for Keeley when they would have movie nights. 

Keeley took a blanket and wrapped it around her head and body like a giant shawl, and sunk into the back of the sofa. Ted sat next to her, within touching distance, but with a respectable six inches apart, and Keeley slid toward him.

“Can I—are you a touchy feely kind of person?” Keeley said sleepily, hesitance lacing her voice. Ted grinned at the woman beside him.

“C’mon, Keels, join the snuggle party,” Ted said, eyes twinkling as he placed his arm on the back of the couch, leaving it up to Keeley to decide just how much cuddling she was up to after her aborted migraine.

She gladly snuggled in, seeking his body heat, wrapping the blanket around both of them as a bemused Rebecca and Roy watched. After a few minutes of Ted nuzzling the top of Keeley’s head, Keeley saw slight alarm grow on Rebecca’s face and peered upward. Ted was red faced and trying not to cry, and Keeley recoiled slightly.

“Oh my god, Ted, did I hurt you? I’m so sorry—I’ve always been told I have some sharp elbows, are you okay, are your ribs okay, maybe I’ll just sit over here now,” Keeley rambled almost nonsensically in her haste to put space between her and Ted. He very gently put his hand on her opposite shoulder to keep her where she was, and Keeley stilled in her seat, teeth worrying her bottom lip.

“Whew,” Ted said, bringing his other hand to swipe at his eyes roughly. 

“Shoot.”

The other three were silent, watching curiously, without judgment, waiting for Ted.

“Sorry, gang, I—” he sighed again, and Keeley focused on the feel of his heavy, warm, slightly callused palm on her shoulder, the heat sinking through the fabric of her jumper.

“Look,” he said, lips twitching slightly. Keeley was mesmerized by his mustache. She wanted to feel it everywhere. Now was not the time, but…maybe later—much later…

“I moved over here without considering certain things that I had back in Kansas that I didn’t realize I would miss so bad,” he said, almost desperately, willing them to understand. 

“Michelle and I barely touched by the end, and I’m not talkin’ about sex, but that too,” Ted said, shifting on the sofa, crossing his legs as if he wanted to hunch in on himself, and Keeley incrementally raised her shoulder to meet the palm of his hand, as a reminder that she was there and that she was listening. 

“We barely touched at all, but it was okay ‘cause I had Henry, and that boy’s love language is physical touch and affection, always wanting to hang on me like I was a human jungle gym, always wanting to snuggle during movie nights or when I’d read him a bedtime story, or hold my hand in the grocery store, which was always an event,” Ted reminisced, before going on a quick tangent. 

“Y’all ever been to a Costco? It’s like the Wild West or somethin,’ and he didn’t wanna get lost so he’d cling on tight to me, not that I minded much…anyway, I just…this right here,” Ted said, squeezing Keeley’s shoulder tightly as he cleared his throat.

“This right here brought it all back, I missed this. I’ve only been in England for a few months, and now I’m blubbering in front of basically perfect strangers, who happen to be my soulmates through some gosh darn cosmic joke, some of whom probably aren’t too pleased to be connected to me,” Ted said, sighing heavily as he cut himself off, losing steam. 

He settled back on the sofa, his hands moving to his lap as he flexed his fingers on top of his worn, gray KC sweatpants. Keeley impulsively threw herself at Ted’s midsection, as gently as she could manage, arm snaking behind his back, other arm wrapping around his waist as she squeezed. 

After a beat, Ted brought his hands up, placing one in Keeley’s hair as he whispered to ask her if it was okay (it was). She breathed in slowly, surrounded by the smell of Ted’s body wash, his laundry detergent, the uniquely “Ted” scent. Quite frankly, she needed to breathe, so Keeley pulled back slowly, relishing in the feeling of Ted’s fingers sliding through her dirty blonde locks.

Keeley was sure Ted thought she was going to pull away, but she just needed to get re-situated, and grabbed a bunch of fuzzy pillows and more blankets from the end of the sofa before snuggling back in, nestling right under his arm as close as she could get.

“Everybody could use a little snuggle time, I think,” Keeley said sleepily. Rebecca crossed to the sofa, pain pills in hand, and Roy followed up with a fresh glass of water.

“So, we’ve established we all need to be on the same floor, then, and we never noticed it before because we all carpooled with Rebecca,” Roy said, thinking out loud, offering Keeley the water glass.

“How long until this wears off, this proximity requirement, that is?” Rebecca posed the question. 

Keeley could feel Ted supporting her back with his broad hand as she sat up to grab at the pain pills Rebecca had. She turned toward Ted. 

“Didn’t Beard say something about it? I can’t remember,” she mumbled, head still fuzzy. She popped the pills back with a grimace, chugging some water before weakly thrusting the empty glass at Roy. 

Ted smoothed his hand down Keeley’s spine, and she hoped he didn’t feel the shiver that coursed through her body. She settled back against him, and Roy gently tucked another blanket around the two of them, sitting on Keeley’s other side, albeit not draped over her like Ted and Keeley were, so he could stretch his legs out on the sectional part of the sofa. Rebecca sat on Ted’s other side, not cuddling exactly, but close enough to feel the warmth of Ted’s body—that was enough for now. They’d work up to it, eventually. 

“I think Beardo said the proximity requirements should simmer down in a day or two, maybe the whole weekend?” Ted said, stretching his legs out on the ottoman in front of him. Rebecca surprised him by stretching her legs out as well, their feet almost touching on the auxiliary furniture. Roy grunted in acknowledgement. 

“How…does this soul bond thing have an expiration date?” Roy begrudgingly asked as he grabbed the remote and began flipping through the muted TV’s channels. 

Ted tensed slightly and the whole sofa felt it. Keeley nuzzled into his chest, almost asleep but not quite, and relished in Ted’s hand tracing soothing patterns on the back of her neck, scratching her scalp with every other pass. She felt him swallow tightly, and Keeley wrapped her arm more securely around her waist, reaching over to touch Rebecca softly. With her other hand, she cautiously sought out Roy’s body heat, wanting the connection however she could. 

“Uh…” Ted started, clearing his throat nervously. “I…don’t know if I should—I mean. Alright,” he sighed, hand gripping the back of Keeley’s neck as his other arm rested on the back of the couch, a respectable distance away from Rebecca. 

“This is strictly a cone of silence, soulmate tattoo partner business. You feel me?”

He didn’t wait for confirmation. 

“But it’s…as far as I know, this is like a “until death do you part” kinda situation. Literally.”

Everyone seemed to inhale at once. Shit. 

“How do you—I mean,” Rebecca stammered, all poise and grasp on the situation completely gone as she felt discombobulated by the everything of it all.

Ted grimaced slightly, shifting on the sofa to better cradle Keeley, who had slipped down his chest. 

“Think you can stay awake for this part, darlin’?” Ted whispered to Keeley who mumbled inaudibly in response. That’s fine. She could catch the recap later. 

“Well,” Ted said, extending his arm on the back of the sofa, startled when he felt an arm on his other side—Roy. 

“Back in college, me and Beardo were freshman year roommates, and we hit it off real nice from the get-go. We did everything together that first year. Then toward the end of the year, he met someone, a fella in his chemistry class, and they bonded instantly. Never made me feel like a third wheel or nothin’, but anyway, they were together until our last year of undergrad. There was a car accident and uh—” Ted swallowed heavily, and Roy put a hand on his upper arm, squeezing once.

“Anyway. That’s how I know. That’s the only example I have, though, so I’m a little short on empirical evidence,” Ted tried to joke. No one laughed. 

Keeley mumbled into Ted’s soft teeshirt. 

“What’s that, darlin’?”

Keeley raised her head slowly. 

“Did Beard ever bond with anyone, after, I mean?”

Ted shook his head. 

“I’m not sure if it’s a one and done kinda thing, but it certainly was for Beard. He’s been alone ever since then,” Ted said, swallowing hard. 

“He hasn’t,” Roy said quietly on Ted’s left. 

“What’s that, now?”

Roy grunted, as if having a feeling and expressing it was painful. 

“He hasn’t been alone. You’ve been with him the whole time, Ted.”

Keeley snuggled into Ted’s chest, holding him as close as she could as she felt his heartbeat thunder in his rib cage. She felt him vibrate as the man snorted out loud. 

“How’d you know that, Royo? You been checking up on me?” Ted teased, and Roy growled, but there was no bite in it. 

“Please, with Rebecca firing Cartrick—thanks for that, by the way, he was the fucking worst,” Roy said as he threw a cheeky salute at Rebecca. 

“Well, I had to investigate the new gaffer, didn’t I? Captain’s duty, innit.”

The room fell into a comfortable silence as Keeley slung her legs over Ted’s lap, settling even further into his lap.

“‘M glad Beard had you, Ted,” Keeley mumbled into the fabric of his teeshirt. She could practically feel him smile as he tightened his arm around her, pulling the blanket up her torso.

“Thanks, Keels. I don’t know what I woulda done without him, honestly, and there’s no one else that woulda packed up and moved thousands of miles with me to coach a sport that they barely know how to play, y’know? Beardo’s a sponge, though. Been that way since before I met him.”

“I’ve never met anyone as smart as him. He knows I don’t sleep on airplanes so he spent almost the whole flight readin’ me a couple soc—I mean, football—facts on our way across the pond. I won five bucks when I sneaked “into touch” in a sentence during the press conference that Rebecca threw me into right after we landed,” Ted reminisced, winking at Rebecca who flushed bright red.

She had come clean to Ted about her plan to torch the club a few weeks prior to the soulmate tattoo reveal. He had forgiven her almost immediately, telling her that divorce was hard, and letting her hug it out. Perhaps that contact had precipitated the tattoo reveal—they never knew if the tattoos popped up due to proximity or to physical touch, but in the weeks after the confession, the day before all of the tattoos had appeared, Ted had accidentally touched every single member of the soulmate quartet. 

He had hugged Rebecca; He had shaken hands with an unimpressed (and angry) Roy; he had caught Keeley—by the grace of God—as she was hanging something up in her office and had slipped off of the chair. He gave her a real good disappointed “Dad lecture” after that, about how he knew she was a strong, independent woman, but that asking for help from those taller than her was to be encouraged because he’d be real sad if she hurt herself doing something that coulda been prevented.

And here they were—Ted was the middle in a Roy-Rebecca sandwich with a slumbering Keeley nestled on his chest. What the fuck was his life. 

Keeley snuffled on Ted’s shirt, burrowing even further, and Ted’s arm tightened around her back, cradling her to his chest as one of her hands shot out to sleepily grab at Rebecca who took her friend’s hand with a fondly amused grin. Keeley curled her arm to her chest, trapping Rebecca’s hand in between her body and Ted’s chest. 

The (awake) trio sat quietly, watching a muted and subtitled Sky Sports segment on the upcoming Olympics. Roy had feelings about the team GB football prospects and was muttering at the screen. They were all startled when the doorbell rang; the takeout had been completely forgotten. Keeley stirred a little, but otherwise didn’t move (and wouldn’t release Rebecca’s hand) so Roy grunted, looked somewhat fondly at the trio on the sofa, and slowly shuffled toward the door to bring the food into the kitchen. 

Rebecca managed to extract her hand from Keeley’s iron grip, replacing her hand with Ted’s own, which she latched onto like a toddler in her sleep, and went to help Roy in the kitchen. Ted waited a beat, then some more, listening to the rustling and the soft voices in the kitchen, before shifting on the sofa. Keeley stirred, eyes fluttering open as she yawned slightly and stretched her arms wide.

“Keels, I know you’re as sleepy as a bear in winter right now, but we got some food in the kitchen if you’re hungry, sweetheart,” Ted said quietly as Keeley dug her palms into her eyes, yawning all the while. She shifted off of him, sitting firmly on the sofa, and placed her socked feet on the floor. He groaned as he got off of the sofa, and turned to offer a hand to Keeley as they headed to join the others.

After a quick and quiet dinner, clustered around the kitchen island as the events of the last few days caught up with them all, the quartet started to migrate back to the living room. Keeley was marginally more awake, and suggested that they all snuggle together and watch a movie.

“I can’t go to sleep, proper, now, or my sleep schedule will be fucked, you know?” Keeley said through a yawn while lounging in the middle of the sofa. “But I think I can stay awake for one movie.” 

“Come for a snuggle, yeah?” She extended her arms out on either side. 

Rebecca was lagging behind, making up a drinks tray—hot chocolate, tea, and some god awful decaf coffee and Baileys concoction that Keeley was currently into—so Ted and Roy awkwardly glanced at each other and shuffled in on either side of the curled up Keeley in the center. 

She passed them both a fuzzy pillow, and unfurled the giant blanket in her lap so it covered all three of them. Roy grabbed the remote and started flipping channels, hoping to find something to pique everyone’s interest. 

Keeley’s hand shot out, and Roy passed her the remote, which the woman used to navigate to Rebecca’s Disney+ app. It had opened to Phoebe’s profile as the young girl had been taken home by Rebecca one night when Roy was at an away game, Keeley was at a conference, and Ruth had been called into surgery. The Kent siblings had felt awful about it, but as Rebecca and Keeley both separately reminded them, “it takes a village.”

Rebecca had a late afternoon shareholders meeting in South London and had almost missed the call from Phoebe’s school—she had insisted she and Keeley be added as emergency contacts—but had managed to accept the call whilst dashing out of the meeting. She arrived at Phoebe’s school a neat twenty minutes later, and the little girl had been so excited at her pick-up by the real life Elsa as many kids on the playground began to whisper.

They had spent the rest of the night eating pizza—and a salad, because balance—and watching various Disney movies until Phoebe had fallen asleep on Rebecca’s shoulder shortly before her mum had come to collect her. That night had been about a week before the mysterious tattoos had appeared, and Phoebe had only seen her uncle Roy once since then (they had FaceTimed every day, though.)

Keeley exited Phoebe’s profile and clicked on her own, which indicated that she had started Inside Out and Robin Hood before abandoning them to watch a National Geographic documentary about Egyptian archaeology. 

Rebecca emerged from the kitchen to find the trio situated on the sofa, with Ted and Roy both trying to keep a respectful distance from the woman in the middle to no avail. Keeley wanted to cuddle, and was determined to start small, but wanted to make everyone as comfortable as she could with this insane life plot twist. 

“Aren’t you cozy, darling?” 

The fondness was clearly evident in Rebecca’s voice as she winked at Keeley over the drinks tray which she placed gently on the coffee table in front of the woman. 

“Oh please,” Keeley said, eyes glittering with amusement. “We snuggle literally all the time, Rebecca. And now I get to have more people to cuddle? I’m living my best life, okay!”

Rebecca stepped back from the coffee table, eyes narrowing slightly, a hint of nerves showing through. 

“Where do you want me, then?”

Keeley smiled brightly, beaming up at her best friend. 

“Wherever you’re most comfy, babe, if you wanna stretch those long legs of yours out with Roy on the side over there, or snuggle on the other side of Ted—either way you know I’m gonna be commandeering whichever blanket we end up sharing.”

Rebecca smiled indulgently, all nerves dropping away, saluting her friend as she settled on the sofa next to Roy—she did like to stretch her legs out on the sofa, and she didn’t need to have the blanket covering her legs because of her pink fuzzy slippers (Keeley had gotten them for her last Christmas and she adored them in her drafty house.)

“What are we watching, Keels?” Ted said curiously as he leaned forward slightly to reach the drinks tray, passing the Baileys to Keeley and grabbing a hot chocolate for himself before scooching the tray down to the other end of the coffee table.

Keeley snuggled deeper into the blankets, bringing her mug to her lips to take a gulp, pink tongue darting out to wipe away the foam.

“Can we watch Encanto?” she said quietly, almost uncharacteristically shy, and Roy’s arm met Ted’s on the back of the sofa as they both tightened their arms around the woman. 

“Of course, my love,” Rebecca replied before whining a little as she all but threw herself onto the sofa in a brat-like way. 

“Except fuck you a little bit, affectionately, for picking a movie that you know makes me deeply emotional. Absolutely not fair.” 

Keeley would…pencil that thought in for much later. Brat!Rebecca could be fun to play with.

“Aw man, I love the heck out of this movie, Keels, excellent choice,” Ted said as he absentmindedly brought his hand up to play with the edges of Keeley’s curls. His other hand was resting on Roy’s arm almost tentatively until Roy shifted, pressing up against Ted’s hand minutely.

“Henry and I got to watch this one together a bunch of times, on FaceTime and in person, over the last year. Those songs are some real earworms, ya know?”

By the end of the 90-minute film, the quartet had unconsciously gravitated together, migrating to the middle of the sofa. Keeley yawned as she stretched her arms over her head, and Rebecca took that opportunity to poke at her side where she knew the petite woman was the most ticklish. The resulting squawk of outrage had Rebecca giggling, muffling her cackles in the fabric of Roy’s jumper as Ted and Roy glanced at each other, not wanting to get in the middle of this maybe tickle fight. 

Rebecca placed her empty tea mug on the tray in front of them, grabbing Roy’s mug out of his hands, and surveyed the sofa occupants with some nerves evident. Bolstered by the steady presence of Roy’s leg, touching hers briefly under the blanket, she decided to broach the subject of sleeping arrangements.

“It seems for the proximity requirements to be satisfied, we all have to be on the same floor of the house. Now, I—” Rebecca cut herself off, grasping her palms together nervously. 

“G’on, babe,” Keeley encouraged, and Rebecca took a deep breath, shifting her shoulders so they made contact with Roy sitting next to her.

“I wouldn’t want to presume, and there are three guest rooms upstairs, plus my main bedroom so we can all sleep comfortably separately, or…”

Keeley grinned, popping her head up from her dozing place on Ted’s chest.

“Orrrrrrr,” Keeley said a little sing-song-y. “We could all pile into your giant king sized bed—honestly that thing is absolutely massive. Whenever Rebecca and I have sleepovers, we don’t even touch each other at night, that bed is that huge!”

Rebecca shrugged her shoulders, daring to meet Ted and Roy’s gazes, both looking at her softly, non-judgmentally, maybe a little curiosity on Ted’s part. He was the only one who hadn’t yet slept in Rebecca Welton’s bed, a fact that they all simultaneously just realized now.

“I snore. And I tend to steal all the covers,” Rebecca confessed, giving them all one last out. To her relief, no one took it.

“Lead the way, boss,” Ted said jovially, cringing as he said so, narrowing his eyes contemplatively. 

“We have a lot to all discuss, what with our fancy schmancy jobs and all, and the power hierarchy and all that—”

“You mean, I’m the one who signs your paychecks,” Rebecca cut Ted off dryly, cracking a small smile, and Ted and Roy grimaced slightly.

“Eh, I mean,” Roy spoke up, really for the first time all night, gently nudging Rebecca’s shoulder with his own. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with that when you took over the club, Blondie.”

He winked at her, and then turned his head to see Ted’s reaction to that little bombshell, wondering if it would pass right by the gaffer. Ted’s face remained placidly serene, and Rebecca could almost feel Roy pout in response.

Keeley chuckled, reaching over to pat Roy’s cheek in a way that managed to be completely charming rather than condescending.

“Oh, Royo, I already gave Ted a heads up—poor guy had to know what he was about to walk into, he thought he was the odd one out and I reassured him that he was very much not,” Keeley said cheekily, cuddling back into Ted who wrapped an arm around her loosely. She had managed to move to the outside of the “cuddle puddle” so she could have eyeballs on all three of them.

“So, then,” Rebecca said, almost at a loss. Roy took her hand gently, twining their fingers together, a little squeeze to lessen the panic that had begun to stir in her stomach.

“Why don’t we all go upstairs, wash up, get ready for bed, and we just pass the fuck out, yeah?” Roy said simply. “I dunno about you all, but I’m fucking knackered, alright? Living up to my nickname from Jamie and all that.”

The other three looked confused until a pained Roy elaborated, rolling his eyes so hard it looked like they might be stuck in the back of his head forever. 

“Granddad.”

Rebecca snorted on the sofa beside him and quickly apologized with a light squeeze of the hand as she swirled her thumb over the softer skin of his palm.

“Well Roy-o I think technically, Ted’s the oldest of us all, right?” Keeley said, and Rebecca groaned, knowing what Keeley was doing.

“Darling, no, I think I’m the oldest of us—Ted was born 18 September 1975 and I’m 28 July 1974,” Rebecca explained, rolling her eyes as she watched her friend’s eyes light up.

“Oi, hey, how do you just happen to know Ted’s birthdate right off the top of your head?” Keeley challenged with a little smirk, and Rebecca’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Well, I did have to look through all of his hiring paperwork before passing it along to Higgins, you know,” Rebecca said somewhat shortly. 

“Even though I was—”

“In your Disney villain era,” Keeley interjected cheekily, and Rebecca frowned slightly before rather reluctantly grinning at her best friend. 

“Yes, yes, in my Disney villain era,” Rebecca sighed, gesturing wildly with her free hand. “I did still have loads of paperwork to do during that era, I wasn’t about to leave it all to Higgins, for God’s sake.”

“So you know everyone’s birthdays?” Ted chimed in, and Rebecca glared at him, although there was no heat in it. 

“Oh you—of course I do. And just for the record, Roy, here is 17 July 1980, and you, you little minx,” Rebecca said with fond exasperation as Keeley stuck her tongue out playfully. 

“You are 21 July 1989. I know this because we have spent the last 5 of your birthdays getting horrendously drunk, and I am almost too old for that shit, I’ll need a full week before and after your celebrations to physically and mentally recover.”

“What the heck happened 9 months before July,” Ted mused out loud, and Roy reached over to thump him on the chest as Rebecca snorted before she could stop herself.

“Right,” Keeley said brightly, as the other three bickered and mumbled under their breath. 

“Shall we go get washed up, then?”

Rebecca was the first to rise from the sofa where everyone was really quite comfortable.

“C’mon, up you get—especially you, Roy, you’ll be bloody miserable if you fall asleep down here,” Rebecca said, offering him a hand as he gingerly placed his foot on the floor and extended his dodgy knee. 

“Look, I’m too exhausted to give you a tour of the first floor, so we’ll save that for tomorrow,” Rebecca said, leading everyone out of the living room and to the main staircase, waiting as Ted grabbed his bag that he had deposited in the foyer earlier that day. 

“But I’ll give you a quick tour of the second floor and show you where you can wash up and get ready for bed.”

Rebecca made quick work of showing everyone (mostly Ted) the second floor, the various guest rooms with their en-suites, and then all but dragged Keeley into the main bathroom with her. 

Pressing her palms to her eyes, Rebecca leaned against the door, feeling the coolness against her lower back where her shirt had ridden up. She groaned quietly. 

“Babe?” 

Keeley’s tremulous voice shocked Rebecca out of her funk, and essentially made her get her shit together.

“I’m alright, darling,” she said reassuringly. “Today—all of it, really—has just been a lot. I mean…” 

Rebecca could feel herself starting to spin out and was startled by Keeley grabbing her hands.

“Sweetheart,” Keeley said soothingly, releasing Rebecca’s hands so she could wrap her arms around her friend’s waist, bringing it in for a much needed hug. 

“It is a lot, of course it is,” Keeley said firmly. “I have no doubt the boys are feeling the same way. One step at a time, alright?”

“Why don’t you go wash that gorgeous face of yours and then I can steal some of your fancy, horrendously expensive night cream, yeah?” Keeley winked at Rebecca, and Rebecca felt warm and fuzzy about it.
 
Rebecca and Keeley were fairly quick with their nightly ablutions, and soon found themselves back in Rebecca’s bedroom where Rebecca was feeling her nerves rise yet again. Keeley squeezed her hand, throwing her a wink.

“Babe,” Keeley said seriously. “You have got to relax. Think of this as a sleepover. We’ve had them loads of times. We had one just a few days ago. There is no pressure here, we’re just going to probably all have the best night’s sleep of our lives, alright?”

Rebecca exhaled slowly. Right. Keeley was so right. It could mean whatever she wanted it to mean, and she wanted it—them all sleeping in the same bed together, her fucking soulmates, for christ’s sake—to not mean anything, not right now when they all barely knew each other and were still feeling out the group dynamics.

A knock sounded at the door and Keeley cheerfully responded for them to come in, joking that they were both decent.

“Holy cow,” Ted said, standing stock still in the door frame as Roy ran into his back with a pained grunt.

“For fuck’s sake, Lasso,” Roy complained, winking at Rebecca over Ted’s shoulder as Keeley giggled.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Roy-o, it’s just—hot damn. That’s gotta be the biggest bed I’ve ever seen, sweet baby Jesus.”

Rebecca found her nerves melting away with Ted’s ongoing schtick, and something told her that he knew it, too, and was hamming it up for her benefit.

“Yes, well,” Rebecca said, sniffing slightly, gesturing to Keeley beside her.

“As this one reminds me constantly, I am a very wealthy woman, and I should have all the nice things I desire, so I had a custom king sized bed made specifically for the room. I wanted the width of a traditional king, and the length of a California king, but I think they ended up making it even bigger as long as it fit in the room and there was an equal amount of space to get out on both sides of the bed,” Rebecca said, steadfastly ignoring Keeley who commented on her Amazonian-type leg situation as the reason for a longer bed. 

“Do you—” Ted cut himself off, and Rebecca nodded at him to continue, whatever it was.

“Can you even buy sheets for this thing? I don’t suppose you can just rock up to Ikea or John Lewis—I’m learning, y’all!—and buy bedding like this?”

Rebecca smirked, prepared to blow Ted’s mind with the shopping habits of the rich and introduce him to the concept of custom—well, custom anything, actually. The resulting banter and bickering, and occasional asides from Roy, halted the second they realized Keeley had been slowly coaxing them to the bed all the while, a siren if there ever was one. Rebecca grinned wryly. 

“Menace.”

Keeley stuck her tongue out, pleased with her plan coming to fruition.

“Alright. As you can see, this bed is fuckin’ massive, so we will definitely all fit—thanks for inadvertently building a bed for your fucked up soulmate polycule, Rebecca,” Keeley said decisively, hands on hips as she surveyed the pajama-clad trio. Rebecca sputtered at Keeley’s cheek, and Keeley gave her friend a saucy wink.

“Now, if anyone has sleeping preferences, speak now or forever hold your peace—no? Okay, well, I think for placement-wise, tonight at least, it makes sense for Roy and Rebecca to be on the outside of the bed. Me and Ted can be the jelly in the donut, yeah?” Keeley grinned, proud to have been able to condense what would have been a horrendously polite hour-long debate into a cool five minutes. They should really give her a medal of some kind, honestly.

The trio silently agreed, and Ted and Keeley slid into the middle of the bed, barely touching but leaving the option open as it was already made quite clear that the two of them were absolute cuddle fiends. Roy slid in beside Ted, as Rebecca dashed back in with a stack of extra pillows from her walk-in closet in the adjoining room.

“Pillow fight, babe? Awwwwwww,” Keeley chuckled as Rebecca glared at her.

“Do you want a pillow or not, darling?” Rebecca said slowly, delighting in the not-so-secret flush that she saw creep up the necks of Keeley and Ted. That was new.

Rebecca slid into the bed next to Keeley, getting situated with her favorite pillow that she had stolen from the middle of the bed before they got in. She fiddled with the remote on her bedside table, and Ted whistled as the lights dimmed and blackout curtains began to unfurl, shrouding the room in darkness.

“So…how ‘bout those Yankees?” Ted said with a chuckle, laying flat on his back with his hands neatly folded on his stomach. 

Roy snorted out loud—for some insane reason, Phoebe had gotten into a baseball phase the year prior when an American exchange student had entered her primary school. The number of baseball games he had to watch was truly mind-numbing. Thank god she moved onto football, a proper sport, in his opinion.

“Got somethin’ ya wanna share with the class there, Roy?”

Rebecca could hear Roy mumble “later” as he turned toward Ted and his arm came up to clutch his pillow. This bed was magnificent—none of them were actually touching, there was more than enough room available.

She made a mental note to send a gift basket or another thank you card to these incredible custom bed makers, and then before she could think too much about her current situation, she slipped into a dreamless sleep—one of the best in her life. The rest would keep for the morning. They had all the time in the world.